SAN JOSE - The Sharks will be facing a Pittsburgh Penguins team without the NHL's second best scorer Thursday night as Evgeni Malkin had to leave the morning skate with a lower body injury.

"Day to day," was all the information Penguins Coach Dan Bylsma would disclose.

Sharks Coach Todd McLellan said that the absence of Malkin, whose 37 points are one behind teammate Sidney Crosby in the NHL scoring race, "does change the dynamic of their team a little bit with the power play and lines, but one man does not make a team and that is a team over there."

McLellan pointed out that the Penguins "have been able to recover from injury losses in the past and, if fact, some night they even play better. Their team pulls together."

At the same time, when asked if a part of him regretted not getting a chance to see how his team fared against a Penguins team at full strength, McLellan had a short, to-the-point answer:

"No. No. How's that?"

Sharks forward Tyler Kennedy, a former Penguin playing in his first game back in Pittsburgh, said that no matter who goes in Malkin's spot as the second-line center, "it's going to be a good player. They really follow the systems well, they all work really hard."

Bylsma did not elaborate on the injury that forced Malkin to leave practice after about 10 minutes. He played the entire game in Pittsburgh's 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.